A/N: if you're in the Facebook Academy Fan-fiction group then you would know that I really wanted to write a Christmas chapter for this story. I just didn't know how to write it though. Do I write it as a dream? Do I write it as a flash-forward into the future? In the end, I decided to do it as a dream. This is what I'm hoping to be at when Christmas comes around in the story. Which, could be a long way of. Anyway, Enjoy and Merry Christmas to each and every single one of you!
Christmas songs to listen to while reading this (this is what I listened to on repeat while writing this chapter): Glee - Do They Know It's Christmas and Glee - Merry Little Christmas. I'm a huge Glee fan. :D
Capturing Them
Chapter 54
Christmas Special
Sang
Walking through the house, I eye the tinsel and fairy lights with a smile. It's Christmas and I haven't been in a house this decorated since Mom was alive. After she died, Christmas didn't seem all that important to me or Dad anymore.
Going into the family room, I'm greeted with fourteen smiling faces, all dressed in different Christmas jumpers. "Merry Christmas," I say with a smile.
Corey and Raven come over to me, sandwiching me between them. I giggle when they each place a kiss each on my cheeks. "Merry Christmas," they say in unison.
The familiar click of a camera reaches my ears and I look up to find Gabriel with a camera in his hands, snapping pictures at us. He loves taking pictures just as much as I do. It's something we enjoy doing together.
I'm released from the embrace and one by one, I'm wished a Merry Christmas with a kiss on the cheek from each of the guys. When I'm done, I look to the tree and a bubble of excitement travels through me at the sight of all the presents beneath it. "Can we open them?" I ask.
"Not yet," Axel says. "There's somewhere we need to go first."
"Oh, where are we going?"
Taking my hand in his, Kota leads me from the room. "You'll see."
xXx
Mr Blackbourne brings his car to a stop outside of a building on the outskirts of Charleston. The thing that immediately grabs my attention is the long line of people waiting at the door. It's how they look and what they're wearing that makes my heart constrict in my chest. "The homeless shelter?" I ask.
"Soup kitchen," Mr Blackbourne corrects. "It's the only one that's open on Christmas Day." Looking over at me he adds. "We offer our services to help out. The Taylor's Uncle also cooks up a lot of food to be served here. Every year we do this to remind ourselves that for some, life isn't always what it seems."
"We also go around to the charity shops throughout the year," Marc says from the backseat and I turn so I can look at him. "We collect clothes in all sizes, for adults and children. Blankets and sheets to keep them warm. Even toys for the young children."
Tears prick at my eyes. "You all have such huge hearts."
"C'mon, Peanut," Nathan says.
We get out of the car and all eyes turn on us. Behind us, the other guys pile out their cars. North reaches me and takes my hand in his, leading me towards the door. I can't help but look at all the faces as we go by them. Each person I see has my heart constricting painfully. I can't imagine what it's like to live like this.
Once we make it inside, my eyes dart everywhere; seeing all the tables, a Christmas tree in the corner with gifts piling high at the side and some smaller ones underneath. The smell of turkey and ginger biscuits assaults my nose.
"Hello, Mr Blackbourne, Axel, thank you for offering your services again this year," a lady says, making her way towards us. She's wearing a white apron that's stained, with her hair in a messy bun and her face is clear of make up.
"Thank you for letting us help out. You know we enjoy doing so," Axel says.
"The more people to help out the merrier." She picks up a box from a nearby table. "Here are some aprons for you all. We'll be opening the doors in ten minutes." Her eyes go to Gabriel. "The sound system is set up in the corner by the tree and Uncle has already dropped of the food, a lot of it might I add."
"Perfect. Thanks, Alicia."
Alicia walks off with a smile and goes through a door, disappearing from our sight. My eyes go back to the tree. "Who are the presents from?" I ask.
"They're from of us—most of them anyway," Corey says, putting on an apron. Picking up another apron from the box, Corey holds it out to me and I take it from him with a smile.
When Alicia returns, she explains to us that we'll be serving the food. Each plate will have turkey with all the trimmings and that water, tea or coffee is available to chose for a beverage. When I ask why they're serving a dinner so early, the reply I get is because more will arrive by afternoon and each person is only entitled to one dinner.
When the doors open, I watch as the homeless start taking seats. A mother with two young children, an older man with haunted eyes, and a young boy that has bruises on his face. It hurts to see this.
Gabriel heads off to start playing some Christmas music through the speakers and I follow everyone else's lead. I hand out plates of food and ask what drink they would prefer. With each person I make contact with, I imagine what brought them to the here and now.
I reach the man with the haunted eyes. "Hi, sir, here is your food," I place the plate on the table—a plastic one mind you—and place his plastic knife and fork next to it. "What drink would you like?" I ask.
"Whiskey?" He asks, his eyes lifting to look up at my face.
"I'm sorry, the only drinks we offer are water, tea, or coffee."
"I know, Chica, I can hope though. Coffee please, black." I smile and go and collect him his coffee. When I return, I place it on the table. "Thanks. What's a young girl like yourself doing in a place like this?"
"Oh, I'm just helping out," I say. There's a seat free next to him so I sit down, thankful when he doesn't push me away. "What's a gentleman like yourself doing living like this?" I blurt out the question without thinking. I slap a palm to my head. "Oh, I'm sorry. Months ago I never spoke a word and now all I do is talk and blurt out things I probably shouldn't."
The man chuckles. "No problem, Chica." He pauses to take a drink of his coffee. His eyes, the colour of a grey blue ocean, focus on me. "War. It messed me up big time."
This man served our country and this is the life he lives? "I'm sorry," I whisper.
"Don't be sorry, Chica. Shit happens, right?"
The need to help him comes at me strong, but I don't know how. How do I help him and everyone else here? They don't deserve this life.
I get up from my seat and place my hand on the man's shoulder. I don't miss his flinch. "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas, Child," he mumbles.
I walk away with a heavy heart and get on with serving out the plates. After a few minutes, Raven comes up to me and wraps an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into him. I clutch on to his apron and squeeze my eyes closed, keeping the tears at bay.
A heartbeat later, I feel another presence at my side and I look up and into the green eyes of Dr Green. He holds my camera out to me. "I've just spoke to Alicia and told her that you have a love of photography and then asked if you could take some pictures."
My heart thunders in my chest. "What did she say?"
Dr Green smiles at me. "She said you can take them, as long as you ask permission before you take anyone's photo. We'll also have to sign a form before we leave, one that basically says that legal action will be taken against us if we sold any pictures taken." I have nothing against that and completely understand.
"Thank you." It's amazing how they know what I need. I take the camera from him and make my way around, taking photos after asking each and every person if I could. Some said no, others said yes, some didn't care—at that answer, I walk away. I capture images of these people that have a life they don't deserve, and know that I'll always cherish these pictures close to my heart.
About a half hour later, Gabriel calls me over to him. "Yes, Meanie?" I ask.
"Sing a song with me?" He asks, his lips tilting up into a grin.
My heart skips a beat as my eyes move around the room. I've only sang in front of the guys before, so this would be new. But, I want to bring a smile to the faces of everyone in this room. I nod my head. "Sure. Which one?"
He grins, bringing me in for a hug. "You'll know it. I'll start us off in a few minutes, alright?"
I nod my head and leave him as he starts going through a pile of CD's. I continue to taking photos for the next few minutes, trying to ignore the nervous shake of my hands as I await for Gabriel's cue for the song we'll be singing.
Seeing the man with the haunted eyes still sitting in his seat, plate and coffee cup empty, I find myself lifting my camera to my face as I capture a picture of him, his eyes moving around the room and taking everything in. As if feeling the weight of my eyes on him, he looks in my direction. I drop my camera so he can see my face and offer him a small smile which he returns.
I point to my camera and he narrows his eyes before giving me a jerk of his head. I smile, I can take his picture.
A familiar song starts playing through the four speakers in each corner of the room. A few seconds into the song, Gabriel's voice carries towards me.
"It's Christmas time, and there's no need to be afraid. At Christmas time, we let in light and we banish shade." Gabriel's wonderful voice is confident and beautiful as he sings to the room full of people. Everyone has his attention. "And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy. Throw your arms around the world at Christmas time."
I take a deep breath as my eyes find Gabriel's. he nods his head, sending me silent encouragement. "But say a prayer," I sing. "To pray for the other ones. At Christmas time, it's hard, but when you're having fun. There's a world outside your window, and it's a world of dread and fear, where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears."
My eyes start pricking with my own tears. Turning around, I give the opposite end of the room my attention. I'm thankful when Gabriel starts singing with me too, unsure if my voice is going to crack with the lump that's wedged itself in my throat.
"And the Christmas bells that ring, are the clanging chimes of doom, Well tonight, thank god it's them instead of you."
Victor catches my eyes across the hall, his fire eyes bright. He grins, sends me a smile and thumbs up.
"And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time," Gabriel sings.
"The greatest gift they'll get this year is life," I sing, my feet moving towards a group of children. I hold my hands out and they take them. We start swaying together, the smile of their faces something else altogether.
"Where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow," Gabriel sings from behind me.
"Do they know it's Christmas time at all?" We sing together.
"Here's to you," Gabriel sings with the voices of everyone else in the room.
"Raise a glass for everyone," I follow with, the lyrics flowing of my tongue easily. No one sings with me.
"Here's to them,"
"Underneath that burning sun,"
Together we all sing, "Do they know it's Christmas time at all?"
The children I'm kind of dancing with hug my legs and I can only comfort them by putting my hand on their heads and hugging them back.
"Feed the world, let them know it's Christmas time," I manage to choke out through the lump in my throat. I take a minute to look around the room as Gabriel finishes the song. Luke is dancing with another group of children, Kota and Corey are sitting with the teen boy that came in covered in bruises. Axel is sitting with the two children and their mother.
My eyes go to the man and I find North and Raven sitting with him. North's eyes are narrowed in Raven's direction and Raven is laughing, the man laughing right along with him.
"You have a lovely voice, lady." One of the children hugging my legs say.
"Please, please sing another song," another says and who am I to tell them no?
xXx
The day is long and I leave the soup kitchen with a heavy heart, my thoughts and prayers with every person I met and spoke to today. I'm sitting in the passenger seat of Mr Blackbourne's car as he drives us home.
I'm gazing out the window so when I see a man huddled with blankets under a bus shelter, I find my eyes narrowing, wondering if is the man with the haunted eyes. I never had a chance to say goodbye to him and I desperately want to.
He looks up just as the car starts to go by and I'm immediately telling Mr Blackbourne to stop. Thankfully, he does. "Okay, Miss Sorensen?"
"I'll be back," I get out of the car without waiting for a reply, sure that he'll wait for me.
I put my hands into my coat pocket as I make my way up to the man with the haunted eyes. Those eyes lift to me when I come to a stop in front of him. "You left without saying goodbye," I tell him.
"You were playing the children. I didn't want to interrupt that," is his reply.
I shuffle on my feet as I ask, "What's your name?"
He chuckles. "I'm sorry, Chica, but I can't tell you that at the moment."
I take a seat on the bench at his side. "Why not?"
"Because," he says, looking over at me. "This is all a dream and soon, you'll wake up." He pauses as he pulls the blanket he has over his shoulders tighter around him. "Just know that you've been the brightest part of my life for a long time."
My heart tightens, like it has many times today. "I wish I could do more to help you."
"You will, one day. In the meantime, can you please sing me a song?"
Who am I to say no? I look over towards the car, finding that Mr Blackbourne has parked the car on the opposite side of the street. Everyone else is here too, their cars parked behind the grey BMW. From Victor's car, the radio plays and my ears strain to hear as the announcer on the radio says he's going to start playing another Christmas song.
My lips tilt up into a smile as I focus my eyes back onto the man—a man I know nothing about. "Have yourself a merry little Christmas, let your heart be light..."
xXx
I walk into my warm house with a heavy, but warm heart. It feels nice knowing I've done something good today, made strangers smile, children laugh and brought some light to a life I couldn't imagine being in.
"Shall we open some presents?" Luke asks, shrugging off his coat.
"No," I find myself saying. "Let's just sit and watch a movie. We'll open presents in the morning."
Everyone smiles at me and twenty minutes later, that's exactly what we do. Throughout the movie I cry. I cry for what I've seen today, I cry for those that aren't so lucky to be able to do something like this, I cry for the man with the haunted eyes, and then I cry for my Mom, wishing she was here to witness something like today.
xXx
I blink my eyes open and stare up at the ceiling of my room for a long moment, trying to steady my beating heart. I'm not sure what the dream was, or what it meant, but everything I feel right now feels all too real.
I climb out of bed and go over to the attic door. Pulling it open, I crawl inside and head deeper into the space until I reach the lower half. Getting to my feet, I tiptoe over to the bed and find Kota sleeping on the left, Victor on his other side.
I shake Kota's shoulder and he startles awake. Before he can saying anything I ask, "Can I come and sleep in here with you?" I whisper.
"Of course, Sweetie. You okay?"
I go to the foot of the bed and climb over Kota's legs so that I'm in the middle of the two. Lying down, I stare up at the twinkling lights. "Yeah," I say with a soft sigh. "Just a dream."
"Want to talk about it?" Victor asks sleepily, rolling onto his back.
"Maybe one day, just not today," I reply.
Sleep consumes me quickly but there are no more dreams. When I wake the next morning, Kota is hugging me from behind and Victor's hands are wrapped in mine. I could get used to sleeping like this with them—all of them.